Statements of the ancients.
Statements of the ancients.
§ 43. The words of the devout ancients should be placed here. (1) Statements in which they tie repentance and faith together, where the word “repentance” means contrition by synecdoche.
(2) Statements in which they add the hope of pardon to repentance, where the hope of pardon indicates nothing other than confidence in God’s mercy promised for Christ’s sake.
(3) Statements in which they say that repentance is bemoaning sins and no longer committing sins to be bemoaned, where the first belongs to contrition and the second requires faith, without which the God-pleasing newness of life is impossible.
Justin (QQ. et resp. ad orthod., q. 37, p. 322): “Through repentance and faith in Christ, forgiveness for the sins which one has committed is received.”
Irenaeus (bk. 3, ch. 11, p. 182): “It is the recognition of salvation and of the Son of God, who is truly said to be and truly is salvation, Savior, and health. John made this recognition of salvation repentance for those who repented and believed in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world [John 1:29].”
Clement of Alexandria (Stromat., bk. 2, p. 174): “True repentance requires that we cease sinning and believe.” In the same place he calls repentance “the work and office of faith.”
Tertullian (De poenit., bk. 1, p. 556): “This washing” (by which he means Baptism) “is the seal of faith; and this faith begins with and is commended by the faith of repentance.” Contra Marcion. (bk. 4), concerning the sinful woman: “Although the stimulus for her repentance had come from faith, through her repentance she heard from Him through whom she was justified by faith: ‘Your faith has saved you’ [Luke 7:50], that is, from Him who had declared through Habakkuk [2:4]: ‘The just by his faith lives.’ ”
Lactantius (Instit., 5, ch. 15, p. 433), in the Haereseolog.: “The awareness of sin and the fear of punishment cause a person to be more religious, and the faith which repentance establishes is always stronger.”
Ambrose (De poenit., 1, ch. 1, part 1, p. 152): “No one can repent well except the person who has hoped for forgiveness.” Chapter 10 (p. 159): “If you wish to call back some fallen person, do you urge him to believe or not to believe? Surely you urge him to believe; but according to the statement of the Lord, whoever believes has eternal life [John 3:36].” De poenit. (bk. 2, ch. 8, p. 172): “What we read about Lazarus we should believe in the case of every converted sinner, who, though he may stink, is nevertheless cleansed by the precious ointment of faith, for faith has so much grace that, where the dead man was stinking the day before, the entire home there was filled with a fragrant odor.” Letter 3 (bk. 1, vol. 3, p. 64):
Whoever wants to wash away his sin must remove the strange fire from himself [cf. Lev. 10:1]. He should offer himself to that fire alone which burns away the fault and not the person. Who is that fire? Listen to him as he says, “Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire,” etc. [Matt. 3:11]. He is the fire who washed away the sin of the thief. Judas could not come for a remedy because he wrapped a strange fire in his breast, a fire which incited him toward the noose, for he was unworthy of the remedy because he did not lament in his innermost mind when he turned, nor did he repent zealously. For our Lord Jesus is of such pity that He would forgive him if he had desired Christ’s mercy.
Letter 76 (bk. 9, p. 186): “Wherever punishment is prescribed, repentance of sins should be present. Wherever forgiveness is given, there is grace. Repentance comes first, and grace follows. Therefore there is no repentance without grace, no grace without repentance; for repentance should first condemn sin that grace may wipe it away.” On Luke 24 (bk. 10, vol. 5, p. 167): “God does not demand mere tears, but faith. Tears are good if you acknowledge Christ.” Sermon 45 de latrone (which some attribute to Bishop Maximus): “It is faith which covers sins, which overcomes crimes, which makes innocent people out of thieves; for though the blame for those who sin may be great, the grace of faith nevertheless is greater.”
Chrysostom (Ad pop. Antioch., homily 80): “Do not trust in your own repentance, for your repentance, however great, cannot destroy sin. If it were only repentance, you would be right to be afraid. But after faith and God’s mercy are mixed with your repentance, be confident because only God’s grace overcomes your wickedness.”
** [Chrysostom again] (on Hebrews 6, homily 9): “What else is our teaching but repenting of our dead works and receiving, through the Spirit, faith in the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment?” Jerome (explanation of Psalm 7, a penitential psalm): “Unless a person departs from himself unto Him who is above him, he does not draw near.” **
Augustine (De vera et falsa poenit., ch. 2): “If faith is the foundation of repentance beside which there is nothing that is good, the repentance which is clearly founded on faith is what must be sought, for a good tree cannot produce evil fruits [cf. Matt. 7:17–18]. Thus repentance which does not proceed from faith is useless; for one must believe that the Savior grants the remedy of repentance through faith.”
** [Jerome] (Advers. Pelag.): “We are, then, righteous when we admit that we are sinners, and our righteousness depends not on our own merit but on God’s mercy.” **
[Augustine] (on Psalm 30 [Vg], conc. 1, after the middle): “ ‘In Your righteousness rescue me’ [Ps. 31:1 (Ps. 30:2 Vg)], in order that You may forgive my sins and build up Your righteousness within me. ‘You will be for me my house of refuge. I flee to You,’ etc. [Ps. 31:2 (Ps. 30:3 Vg)]. If You are angry with me, I find You my avenger; if You are pleased, I find You my helper. Therefore nothing remains for me except to flee to You, not from You.” In the preceding chapters, he declares this righteousness to us in this way: that God gives it to us through faith in Christ. On Psalm 146 [Vg]: “We are corrupt and twisted in heart. We can approve almost nothing which God approves. His Commandments do not please us; we complain about Him. Thus there is no other remedy than that those corrupt hearts be broken to pieces [conterantur], and your pounding of sins means nothing else than that you have sinned, not [merely] your mouth. ‘God binds up your contritions’ [Ps. 147:3 (146:3 Vg)]. When people behave in such a way, they must turn their eyes to the Word of God and to the promises bound and sealed by the sacraments, and then our cleanliness will be made perfect.” (See Augustine on Psalms 50, 70, 74, 101, 110, 149, where he always connects with each other contrition and confidence in God’s mercy, which comes to us only in and through Christ.)
Cyril (on Leviticus, bk. 8, col. 712): “Conversion and the faith by which sins are forgiven are required for repentance.”
Fulgentius (Letter 7 ad Venantiam, de recta poenit., in Haeresiol., p. 125):
Beneficial conversion consists in two ways: if repentance does not abandon one who hopes for it and if hope does not abandon the penitent—and through this if anyone wholeheartedly renounces his sin and with his heart places his hope of forgiveness in God. In fact, the devil sometime takes away hope from the penitent person or repentance from a person who hopes. He checks the one as he burdens him and casts down; the other, as he lifts him up, etc. Judas indeed repented worthily but thus denied himself the fruit of repentance because he did not hope that the sin of his betrayal would be washed away by the very blood which he had betrayed, etc. Scripture has forewarned and showed both that we should not remain in our sin and that we should entertain no doubts about the forgiveness of any sin.
Bernard (De annunt. b. Mariae, sermon 1, col. 105): “If you believe that your sins cannot be abolished except by Him against whom alone you have sinned and to whom no sin attaches, you do well. But add this: that you also believe that sins are placed upon you by your own fault. For this is the testimony which the Holy Spirit gives in our heart when He says, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you.’ For the apostle thinks that thus is a person justified freely through the same.” [Bernard again] (Sermon 3 de annunt. col. 112):
O Lord, faith alone obtains a place of compassion with You, and You place the oil of mercy nowhere except in the vessel of trust. But a faithless trust is certainly capable only of a curse, namely, when we sin in hope, though we must not call that trust anything but a sort of destructive insensitivity and pretense. For what is trust to a person who notices no peril? Or what remedy for fear is there where fear is not felt or where there is no material for fear? Trust is solace, and that person needs no solace who rejoices when he commits an evil act and exults even more in the most wicked things. Therefore let us ask that the brethren tell us what great iniquities and sins we have, and let us desire that our sins be revealed to us. Let us examine our ways and consider all our pursuits and perils with watchful intent. Let someone say in his terror: “I shall go to the gates of hell” [Isa. 38:1], so that we no longer breathe except only in God’s mercy. This is the true trust of a person to whom mercy is not denied, as the prophet witnesses that it is the good-pleasure of the Lord upon those who fear Him and upon those who hope for His mercy. Surely no little cause for fear is at hand for us or is upon us. But the cause of our trust is in Him, etc.
Tauler (Conciones, f. 280): “This is the real sugar of true penance and repentance through which the sinner is reconciled with God: if he bids farewell to all creatures and all created things and relies on God’s goodness alone with his whole heart.”
Petrus Cluniacensis (bk. 1, Letter 2): “If, according to Scripture, the righteous by faith lives [Hab. 2:4], the sinner will return to life through faith.”
** Anton. Marinarius (Orat. habita ad patres Trid., which Flacius cites in his book De dissen. pontif., p. 181): “Through Christ He” (God) “forgives sins freely for all those who from the heart return to their senses and who reach out to Him with living faith, and He adopts them into the place and right of His children.” The Postill. Amberg. for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (p. 16): “There are four parts of true repentance: first, the acknowledgment of sin; second, serious grief over it and confession before God; third, hope of and confidence in divine mercy through Christ; fourth, the emendation of life.” **
I also place here the testimony of Jacobus Veldius (whom Aegidius Topiarius calls “a man absolutely finished in every detail in the subject of theology”). In the epilogue to his sermon on the Epistle for Ash Wednesday, he sets up two parts of repentance, namely: “contrition and confession of the inner Adam, who weeps over and bemoans his sins; second, firm faith in God and sure confidence in the grace of God.”